Tag Archives: london

Fireplaces are often thought of as a luxury item. They’re not in every household and are rarely found in flats/ houses. Just because they’re hard to find, though, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your very own fireplace. I’ll show you how we created our own luxury living arrangement.

Our living room needed something different, something to make it feel special as its our first home. There was a large, undecorated area that was seemingly made for a fireplace. We knew there’d be a lot of work involved and thankfully, my other half agreed with my very tight timeline! We did everything from ripping down wallpaper, removing plaster, re-skimming walls and replacing some wooden flooring.

Here’s the start of the project – a regular looking electric fireplace

The first step was to strip off the wallpaper and knock out the old structure

The next step was to recess our fireplace and create a small box in the wall – this would house all those unsightly cables from the TV. We also keep our amazon firebox and wifi box in here (I’m a neat freak and hate seeing loose cables around!)

Now that the fireplace was finished, there was still one thing left to do to really finish the room – wall mount the TV, put the fireplace on and put our feet up with a nice cup of tea

While it’s not a wood-burning fireplace, I think I might actually prefer this! No messy wood to haul in during the winter and all you have to do is push a button to make it start. What a great place to gather the whole family! Who wants to come over? :-p

A while ago, Rajiv and I had a mini holiday in London and have finally managed to put this blog together about everything we got up to

We began by venturing into town and seeing an amazing building I had never seen before – the British Museum. We saw lots of interesting old Egyptian artefacts (rosetta stone, tombs and hyroglyphics) and some boring naked Greek people. We saw Africa too and I was drawn by the throwing knives – so lethal and sharp.

rosetta stone, a scarab (boy didnt know what this was?!), the amount of pills an average person would take in their lifetime and african throwing knives

We toured on the Greenwich cable cars. This was exciting and the views of London were amazing. We were lucky enough to get a private car (these usually cost around £80). Sharing our own car was quite special and romantic – I got excited about what I could recognise from the London skyline, while Rajiv took some photos. Would definitely recommend this, even as a cute date idea. North Greenwich (jubilee line) is the closest tube station and its open 7 days a week. We also had a mooch around The Tate Modern and looked at some Picasso et al. We had some time to spare before dinner so we popped into Ice Bar. We were given these large blue jackets with some thermal gloves attached. It really is ICE cold in here and we were not going to last long so we downed our drinks before we turned into ice and left before our 40min slot was over. Another couple left immediately after us so we didn’t feel like the only pansies.

cold as ice!

American diner for dinner – Bodeans. If you havent been before and you like your meat check it out. Be warned they do not take bookings and are always very busy so rock up early, around 6pm, if you want to be seated for 7.30! We arrived at 7.20pm and the waiting time for a table was 1.5 – 2 hours! They have two sections – 1. a proper restaurant downstairs and 2. a quick, self service, pay and eat (similar to nandos) situated upstairs. We had a tasty BBQ chicken with ribs, slaw and chips served on a roasting tray. Great American feel to the restaurant with frozen meat you can buy and cook at home. The Basketball game was on tv and there was lots of memorabilia. Next time, we will be sitting in the booths downstairs.

Doing touristy type stuff in our own country felt a little strange but it was super fun. A proper holiday with sun and water is looming but you can easily make alternative plans. So if my pictures are making you feel like that, then…Call the person you love. Choose a date. Go online and book a holiday. Its never the right time. There are always important things to do at home. At some point you just have to go. I can tell you right now, you will never regret it. As my wise friend Nick once said to me “you’re not going to lie on your deathbed wishing you spent less time with the man you love”.

Let me tell you a little bit about the story behind how this afternoon tea came to be.

Before I go on, let me set the scene a bit. The Ritz is beautiful. Afternoon tea is held in the world famous Palm Court, all gilded mirrors topped off by the golden nymphs frolicking in the central fountain to the accompaniment of the live piano. Men must wear a jacket and a tie and women the equivalent and the waiters are all dressed impeccably in red waistcoats and tails. And long gone are the days when guests would arrive in their horse drawn carriages, now your reservation is checked on an iPad and you are showed to your table. Few things are more decadent than settling down at 1130am to a meal dedicated to indulgence. It should be all about lip-smacking sweetness, crustless sandwiches, freshly-baked, crumbling scones, and, of course, a good cup of tea.

There’s a lengthy selection of tea – I recommend the passion fruit and orange

The sandwiches – lovely and soft with traditional fillings – excellently attentive staff: topping up our crustless sandwiches. Followed by warm, crumbly scones and a variety of cakes. We opted for the pistachio cake and trifle.

Ritz delights

This was followed by the most exciting and life changing event ever – my proposal. Everyone simultaneously gasped as my beau got down onto one knee. I was speechless, cried and eventually said yes. Sipping on the finest champagne, we revelled in the moment while everyone clapped.

merry christmas everyone xxxxxxx

You only have two hours to tuck into as many scones and sandwiches as you can. Plenty of time to gorge yourself on sweet treats and I would recommend to everyone.